The third time could be the charm for either Nottingham Forest or Tottenham Hotspur when the two winless Premier League clubs square off at the City Ground on Saturday afternoon.
The Tricky Trees claimed their first point of the campaign in last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool, but the Lilywhites’ problems mounted in a 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle United.
Match preview
New season, same old Spurs, but even worse.
Not even the catastrophic 2024-25 and 2025-26 outfits suffered the fate that Roberto De Zerbi‘s men have just suffered, as for the first time in the history of the Premier League, Tottenham have lost both of their opening matches without scoring a single goal.
Some green shoots of recovery were evident against Newcastle after the Brentford horror show in gameweek one, but once Tottenham trailed, there was no way back; Anthony Elanga and Yoane Wissa made the difference for Matthias Jaissle’s visitors.
Two games, two losses and five goals conceded has left Tottenham in an all-too familiar position – the Premier League relegation zone – as the club’s unprecedented summer of spending shows no sign of bearing fruit any time soon.
First goals have been frequently fatal for Tottenham since the start of the 2025-26 season, as the visitors have conceded the opener in 22 fixtures in that time and have failed to win any of them, suffering a shocking 16 defeats.
Tottenham have never started a Premier League season with three straight losses – last suffering that fate in the 1979-80 campaign – but the away faithful will no doubt fear, or perhaps expect, history to rewrite itself on Saturday.
© Imago / Sportimage
Hosts Forest ran the risk of kicking off the campaign with three consecutive defeats in all tournaments last weekend, having been humbled twice by Leeds United at the City Ground in the Premier League and EFL Cup.
There was a different sense of disappointment for the Garibaldi at Anfield, though, where Oliver Glasner‘s men took the lead twice through Dan Ndoye and Morgan Gibbs-White, only to be pegged back twice by Alexander Isak and Victor Munoz.
Glasner therefore continues to wait for his maiden competitive victory in charge of the Tricky Trees, who ought not welcome a return to home territory on Saturday for more than one reason.
As well as losing both of their City Ground contests without scoring so far this season, Forest have only won one of their last 12 Premier League home fixtures, and that triumph came against relegated Burnley back in April.
However, the hosts have toyed with Tottenham in recent times, prevailing in each of their last four Premier League matches; never before have they beaten Spurs five times in a row in the competition.
Nottingham Forest Premier League form:
Nottingham Forest form (all competitions):
Tottenham Hotspur Premier League form:
Tottenham Hotspur form (all competitions):
Team News
© Iconsport / SUSA, NEXPHER/Vernon Yuen
Adding to an already heaving attack on transfer deadline day, Tottenham reunited De Zerbi with his “son” Mykhaylo Mudryk – joining on loan from Chelsea alongside Tosin Adarabioyo’s permanent transfer.
The duo are eligible to debut on Saturday, when Savio (muscle) and James Maddison (shoulder) may also be fit to return, but Wilson Odobert (knee), Xavi Simons (knee) and Dejan Kulusevski (fitness) are out.
In brighter news, Mohammed Kudus came off the bench against Newcastle for his first appearance since January, but De Zerbi may deem it too soon for the Ghanaian to start again.
Deadline day was a quieter affair at the City Ground, but Glasner brought ex-Crystal Palace colleague Daniel Munoz to the club at the end of August, and the Colombian could immediately be stationed at right wing-back for the hosts.
Ola Aina should therefore be sacrificed by Glasner, who continues to make do without another full-back in Nicolo Savona (knee), and it remains to be seen if Ibrahim Sangare’s calf problem settles down in time for Saturday.
Converting the spot kick that Neco Williams – a brief Tottenham transfer target – won at Anfield, Morgan Gibbs-White has been involved in 17 Premier League goals in 2026, second only to Bruno Fernandes’s 22 contributions.
Nottingham Forest possible starting lineup:
Sels; Milenkovic, Cunha, Murillo; Munoz, Schlager, McAtee, Williams; Gibbs-White, Ndoye; Jesus
Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup:
Kinsky; Gray, Van Hecke, Van de Ven, Robertson; Tonali, Bentancur; Porro, Fernandes, Tel; Marmoush
We say: Nottingham Forest 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur
If Tottenham concede first on Saturday, Spurs fans can forget about travelling home happy, but Forest possess evident frailties that Glasner will not fix overnight.
As Tottenham showed some signs of improvement against Newcastle – even if they were for nought – we have faith in the Lilywhites to stop the losing rot and take home a hard-fought point.
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